There are a number of ways now that a person who owns a decent computer and internet connection can use their equipment to earn money while it is connected and do nothing else. These tend to fall into a handful of categories: 1) browser-based earning, 2) processor-based earning, and 3) GPU-based earning. The latter two directly use the computing power of the computer while the first uses the browser for similar connections. In all of them, the user is letting a third party enter the computer to use for their own purposes, i.e. computing sharing. This decentralized group approach then gets paid for the time and amount used.

One of the most popular forms of shared computing has been Folding @ Home. Best known for its "mining" of folding proteins, participants are paid some type of crypto currency for the use of their computer's crunching ability. The connection can be run 24/7, so the earning can be done around the clock. No one is really making millions off this type of crypto earning, but it does consistently produce a few dollars a month that can then be held or swapped for other currencies. Golem Network is another candidate that is particularly friendly for those who use Unix-type computers (Linux).

Getting Set Up

The initial installation requires two things, install of the operating program to connect with the Golem Network as well as configuring your machine to accept VM operations. The latter is toggled in your BIOS. Your machine may not be turned on by default, and the Golem network will tell you when you execute it, noting a VM error and cannot complete.

The instructions for the CLI approach in Linux terminal are fairly easy to follow and provided on the Golem Network site under their installation instructions. Again, the two critical elements that have to be in place are:

• A linux machine with the x86-64 architecture
• Nested virtualization enabled in your BIOS

Once you have the install down and complete, then you can execute the the program with simple commands for both turning the provider program on as well as checking status. The status report is important because it gives you real time data as well as processing statistics and earnings.

On the the node network website, discussed below, you see your stats and the overall network but the data is delayed and takes time to catch up to your current operating status.

Seeing the Overall Golem Network Market

The Golem Network essentially marries resource providers with those who need extra computing power as well as storage and processing resources. Doing so, the network provides those with extra computing power the ability to put it to work for extra income.

So, I tested out the channel as an option for my own personal passive income earning. First, using a dedicated standalone machine that I don't have anything sensitive on, I connected and installed the Golem Network tools. Once tested and confirmed it was working, I could then see the overall network as well as the option for resources to offer. Pricing is set as a default when you first start, but you can reset the pricing to be competitive to the market available. Clearly some players have been busy for a while and have earned quite a bit of GLM in the process. 

New entries have to consider two factors: computing power and pricing. Given that I'm starting out, I focused on price point within my group of 11 threads available in my CPU and storage. That immediately earned me my first task payment, which was processed very quickly and paid in GLM on the Polygon network. Using an outward facing wallet to avoid any hacks, my deposit showed up in my "DMZ" the same day to then be used or swapped how I saw fit.

Overall, the market right now is flooded with providers, no surprise, and not that many users.

So, where Golem might have been a hefty income earner, right now no one should be surprised that earnings are minimal. That said, for the computing I'm providing, I would earn more in one night still back on Banano Folding than what I'm getting from Golem.

It's been an interesting experiment, and Golem does work, but the payouts are minimal, few and far between, and not worth the electricity paying for my machine at this rate of return. That said, Golem is a nice way to learn how to get into shared computing space using a Linux machine. It teaches you how markets and resources work, as well as how to connect a Linux machine easily. If Golem paid more, I would probably stick with it, but right now, my resources need to produce more than the output I'm getting currently.